Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez has again denied any wrongdoing in the alleged rape case involving Kate Brennan and Albert Alvarez as lawmakers involved in the legislative probe of the situation have requested emails from her office.

By John Heinis/Hudson County View

“As in any criminal investigation, reports and internal electronic communications were generated and shared among members of the Office,” HCPO spokesman Ray Worrall said in a statement.

“As a matter of practice, similar communications were generated in every investigative file, totaling thousands of such communications each year.”

The media release came minutes after NJ Advance Media revealed that the state legislative oversight committee investigating how Gov. Phil Murphy’s (D) administration hired Alvarez as a top official at the NJ School Development Agency are seeking to review all the emails related to the case.

In response, Ralph Lamparello, a managing partner at the Secaucus-based law firm Chasan Lamparello Mallon & Capuzzo, called the emails “confidential investigatory records” that were not pubic records.

According to the report, legislators were inquiring if Suarez received emails regarding Brennan’s rape allegations on four occasions between April and May of 2017, which would contradict the notion that she had no knowledge of the case until The Wall Street Journal first reported on the situation in October.

As a result of the explosive report, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal cited conflict of interest statues and reopened Brennan’s case through the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Just two days after that, Suarez released a statement where she stood by her office’s decision not to charge Alvarez after investigating the case for eight months between April and November of 2017.

That statement was repeated in today’s media release, again noting “that investigation was handled professionally by six members of the Office with almost 85 years of combined experience among them.”

Around six weeks later, Grewal announced that a review by the New Jersey Office of Public Integrity and Accountability had found that Suarez had acted appropriately in investigating the case.

Suarez had previously agreed to testifying in front of the legislative committee if she was asked, but she is yet to be scheduled as of this writing.

Hudson County View is an independent media outlet covering news and politics for Hudson County, NJ, and all of its municipalities. Owned and operated by John Heinis, an investigative reporter, Hudson County View focuses on covering elections, public policy, lawsuits, corruption and all other things related to government and politics in Hudson County.